The Ship editor is where you go when you're ready to adjust ship parameters (speed, hull, turrets etc.)

Let's start with the Ship properties panel...

Name  Set name of the ship class (not name of the ship itself, but its class. ex.: Pegasus is Korkyra's gunship class vessel.)

Ship class  Choose a general ship classification.

Manufacturer  Choose which faction created this vessel.

Value  Purchase cost of the ship.

Weapon Power  Adjust the amount of power for weapon batteries. Each battery has this same amount, but spend it individually.

Now let's move a bit back to the Weapons list...
The Weapons list shows all turrets on this ship and to which weapon battery they're assigned (linked to).
Four buttons on the main toolbar are connected with weapons.

Add turret

Adds a new turret

Delete turret

Removes the selected turret

Turret properties

Opens the properties panel of the selected turret

Toggle turret visible

Toggles whether the turret is rendered in the editor or not. This does NOT impact in-game rendering.

We shouldn't forget about that Turret properties panel...

Position  set turret position on ship

Rotation  set turret facing on ship

Scale - set turret size

Battery  assign the selected turret to a specified weapon battery whose power it will then drain when firing.

Firing arc  use these four parameters to adjust firing arc of the selected turret. A firing arc representation is visible in the main viewport to make it easier.

And finally we come to Ship data...

Speed  straightforward adjustment of maximum speed

Maneuver  set how well the ship will "handle corners"

Hull  set hit points / health

Cargo  set how much commodities the ship can haul

Crew  set how many troopers the ship can carry along

Hangar  set whether the ship has fighter hangar

Ship cloak  set whether the ship has a cloaking device

Descript Id  DEPRECATED

Explosion  set which explosion set the ship uses in the event of its destruction

When youre happy with the ship, youll likely want to save it for later. The main toolbar will help you with that...

New ship

Start from scratch

Load ship

load existing ship

Save ship

save opened ship

Save compressed ship

save opened ship as a compressed ship file. This is encouraged when you're completely finished with adjusting ship parameters.
Compressed (binary) files load a lot faster.